The recent state visits by the Emir of Kuwait and the President of the Philippines did not faze the public very much in Brunei. The Brunei people are so accustomed to seeing heads of states and heads of governments visiting Brunei ever since Brunei became an independent nation in 1984.

It was not the case before that. When Brunei was still a British Protectorate state, there was no regular visit of such prestige. Over the course of about eighty years prior to full independence, there were only visits by the British Monarch and members of the British Royal Family. When they visited Brunei, they were treated with great pomp and ceremony.

During the reign of His Majesty Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien, there were two such visits.

It was sixty four years ago to this month that Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and her son, the Duke of Kent visited Brunei. It was on October 21, 1952.…

"There are many areas that UNISSA must explore. One of them is the Halal industry that is fast expanding globally. Is the Halal status not a key requirement of Islam?" His Majesty asked.

"The global market value of the Halal industry is increasing and is estimated to be very large. Within the overall global food industry, the Halal industry has expanded by 16 per cent. The industry may expand to 20 per cent of global trade in food products…

THE GOLDEN LEGACY, THE BRUNEI TIMES 16 OCTOBER 2016Brunei in 1888By Rozan Yunos

Sometime in 1888, Vice Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon, VC, KCB, was cruising off the coast of Borneo according to the newspaper The Illustrated London News on 13 October 1888. He stopped in Brunei and met Sultan Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin ibni Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin, the 25th Sultan of Brunei. Sultan Hashim ascended the throne in 1885 after the death of Sultan Abdul Momin. Vice Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon was the commanding officer of the British Naval squadron on the China station.

The newspaper also reported that the island of Borneo had not yet been thoroughly explored. It noted that there were three states, that of Rajah Brooke’s Sarawak, the area occupied by the British North Borneo and Brunei. It also reported that the Dutch Government has formed settlements in the southern and western parts of Borneo, which are administered in connection with Java, but the interior, with its “primitive tribes of nati…

A RECENT talk at the Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam entitled The Offshore Deep History of Brunei Darussalam combined two interesting topics — that of the history of the millions of years of the underwater geological development in the formation of Borneo Island and Brunei, and the history of maritime shipwrecks especially those of the Second World War.

The talk was given by Dr Antonino Briguglio, a Senior Lecturer of Micropalaeontology and Biostratigraphy at the Faculty of Science and Dr Frank Dhont, a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Asian Studies.

Borneo Island and Brunei can be considered ‘new’ geologically having spent much of its time underwater and only rose up to be Borneo Island probably in the last few million years, a long time for human beings but a very short time in the life of the earth.